Todd Sampson

The Power Index, Thursday, 16 February 2012

Todd Sampson – the much-loved Gruen Transfer panellist with a penchant for edgy T-shirts – is rising up The Power Index. This month his ad agency, Leo Burnett, became the first Australian firm to break into the list of the world's top 10 creative agencies. And now NBN Co has called him in to sell the government's multi-billion dollar broadband network to the Australian public.

NBN Co has confirmed that it is working with Leo Burnett Sydney, according to trade publication AdNews. If the NBN campaign is a raging success, it could send Sampson soaring into our Spinners and Advisers Top 10.

Last week, Leo Burnett was ranked number seven in the world in the Gunn Report, which assesses agencies on the strength of how they have performed in advertising award shows around the world.

The agency's clients include the World Wildlife Fund, Nestle and Canon. Leo Burnett's 'Space Chimp' ad for the WWF, starring singer Ben Lee, was ranked the seventh most awarded ad in the world in the report.

Sampson, who grew up in Nova Scotia before moving to Australia 16 years ago, is the co-creator of the Earth Hour initiative aimed at raising awareness about climate change. This year Earth Hour aims to attract more than 1.3 billion participants.

Power Info

Power Social

Policy

The Power Index follows power and influence in Australia. Paul Barry and a team of investigative journalists find out who really runs Australia via regular Power Lists profiling powerful individuals across Politics, Media, Money, Law + Order, Culture and special lists. The Power Index Email Alert is a twice weekly snapshot of power-related news, views and features. Web development of The Power Index by Valegro.